Rom 4-Faith & the Promise

| Faith and the Promise! Romans 4:9-23

June 11, 2006 (New Living Translation) 9 Now then, is this blessing only for the Jews, or is it for Gentiles, too? Well, what about Abraham? We have been saying he was declared righteous by God because of his faith. 10 But how did his faith help him? Was he declared righteous only after he had been circumcised, or was it before he was circumcised? The answer is that God accepted him first, and then he was circumcised later!11 The circumcision ceremony was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous—even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are made right with God by faith. 12 And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.13 It is clear, then, that God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was not based on obedience to God’s law, but on the new relationship with God that comes by faith. 14 So if you claim that God’s promise is for those who obey God’s law and think they are “good enough” in God’s sight, then you are saying that faith is useless. And in that case, the promise is also meaningless. 15 But the law brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!) 16 So that’s why faith is the key! God’s promise is given to us as a free gift. And we are certain to receive it, whether or not we follow Jewish customs, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. 17 That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who brings into existence what didn’t exist before.18 When God promised Abraham that he would become the father of many nations, Abraham believed him. God had also said, “Your descendants will be as numerous as the stars,” even though such a promise seemed utterly impossible! 19 And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though he knew that he was too old to be a father at the age of one hundred and that Sarah, his wife, had never been able to have children.20 Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. 21 He was absolutely convinced that God was able to do anything he promised. 22 And because of Abraham’s faith, God declared him to be righteous.23 Now this wonderful truth—that God declared him to be righteous—wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. 24 It was for us, too, assuring us that God will also declare us to be righteous if we believe in God, who brought Jesus our Lord back from the dead. 25 He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God.  Pray. Scripture Memory: Romans 5:6-86At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Intro:When someone makes a promise to you, someone you have good reason to trust, how far are you willing to go in trusting them to be good to their word? The Example of Faith (vv. 9-12)The Antithesis of Faith (vv. 13-15)The Walk of Faith (vv. 16-25) 1. The Example of Faith (vv. 9-12)(NIV)  9Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.The way Abraham did it:Step 1: God gave Abraham the promiseStep 2: Abraham believed GodStep 3: Abraham’s faith was credited to Him as righteousness.Step 4: He obeyed God  The way we do it:Step 1: God gives us His promise – in the Person and work of Jesus Christ.Step 2: Option 1: It sounds like foolishness to us.     Option 2: It sounds to us like it is worth pursuing.Step 3: Option 1: We put off responding until some time down the road.Option 2: We believe what we hear… at least to an extent. We can easily understand and acknowledge that we are not perfect. So we ask God to forgive us for those inevitable shortcomings that we all have. However, we still believe that it is only fair that God accept us because we, in some way or another, deserve it. So we start coming to church. Perhaps we start giving to the church and may even get involved in ministry. We are quick to say that we believe that Christ died for us. And now we have the responsibility to do our best.We can see this in:F    Our tendency to feel the need to impress others with the things we are doing or trying to doF    Our tendency to compare ourselves, sometimes favorably and sometimes unfavorably, with others around us.F    Our difficulty in truly resting in God’s love for us (except, perhaps, when we FEEL more lovable)F    Our tendency to be critical of othersF    Our difficulty in forgiving othersF    Our tendency to see our value in what we DOF    Our tendency to relegate prayer to a low priorityEtc.Paul, in our passage this morning, is addressing this group. They have embraced a form of the gospel. They believe in God. However, they are still clinging to some vestiges of self-righteousness…Option 3: We believe what we hear and we respond in faith & repentance to the gospel message. Humbly acknowledging that God’s amazing grace is our only hope, both in this life and in the one to come.IF, and only if, we choose this option:Step 4: Our faith is credited to us as righteousness.Step 5: We obey God – not out of a sense of duty, but rather out of a sense of grateful love, not out of any sense of needing to measure up, but rather out of a desire to grow in grace and to bring glory and honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2. The Antithesis of Faith (vv. 13-15)(NIV) 13 Abraham and his descendants received the promise that they would get the whole world. He did not receive that promise through the law, but through being right with God by his faith. 14 If people could receive what God promised by following the law, then faith is worthless. And God’s promise to Abraham is worthless, 15because the law can only bring God’s anger. But if there is no law, there is nothing to disobey. Question: What is the opposite of faith? – Unbelief. What does that look like?Question: What neutralizes faith? What is anti-faith so-to-speak? |   | Answer: Attempting to “receive what God promised by following the law” – or attempting to EARN God’s good pleasure, to be good enough for God to love us.Obedience to God is at the heart of this misunderstanding. Both groups would agree that obedience to God is crucial. Both groups would agree that those who live in casual disregard for God’s righteous decrees is cut off from God and has no reason at all to hope in His promises. So what is different?In one group, obedience is self-serving. It is a means to the end of being acceptable in God’s sight. It is a means of feeling good about oneself.In the other obedience is about God’s glory. It is a means to the end that God would be glorified. It is a means of expressing love and appreciation for God’s marvelous love and grace.In the one group obedience means doing the right things and not doing the wrong things, or at least making a “sincere” effort. It involves lowering God’s standards to a level that they are attainable, and therefore serve as the barometer of one’s “goodness” or “righteousness” – This often means “enforcing” these standards on everyone else and constantly comparing myself with others, once again, with the goal that I can feel good about myself. In the other group obedience means believing God. This means taking Him at His Word. It means believing and accepting our total inability to EVER measure up to His standards, and believing that He loves us because of his grace and mercy. It means feeling good about myself because I am a child of the King, forgiven, clean, accepted and embraced by God, Himself, not because I am good, but because…The Scriptures are very clear in this. If ANYONE is trying to DO GOOD in order to improve their standing with God, they do NOT understand, and may well not have saving faith. It is an either/or. Either we trust in God and in His promise – in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, OR we trust in our own sincerity, our own effort, our own goodness.Will you repent, this morning of your goodness?Will you turn from your desire to be loved for who YOU are and embrace God’s love for you – in the Person and work of Jesus Christ? 3. The Walk of Faith (vv. 16-25)(NIV) 16Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.18Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. F    Against all hope, Abraham believed God. (v. 18)Even though he and Sarah were past child-bearing age, He believed that God was able to do what He had promised.F    He was steadfast in His faith (v. 20). He persevered in it. He was tenacious in his faith. He refused to give in to the temptation of unbelief. F    He chose to believe God and to act on that belief.Being confident that God was able and would do as He promised, Abraham believed that what God said was true and was the right thing to do.Hebrews 11:8 – (NIV) By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. F    He gave God all the glory (v. 20).He did not obey in order to GET God’s promise, in order to GET God’s blessing. He obeyed because his desire was that God would be glorified in his obedience. He obeyed out of a humble desire to give God the glory that is His due.F    He was convinced that God had the power to do what He had promised (v. 21).He KNEW that God was able to do what He had promised. Paul has already pointed out in this epistle that we also KNOW. [Romans 1:21 – 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.] We cannot plead ignorance.Deep down we know that God is able to deliver on His promises. We know that we can depend on them. The problem is often that we do not focus on them. Rather we choose to focus on the circumstances…. Summary / Review:Abraham gave us an example of faith to follow. When God gave him the promise, Abraham believed God and that faith was credited to him as righteousness and it also brought him to respond to God in obedience.He also gives us His promise – in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. To some of us this sounds like just plain foolishness, to most of us here this morning, it certainly seems like something worth pursuing… So we choose to believe what we hear.Unfortunately, many of us only understand and believe PART of the promise. It is not hard for us to see that we cannot cover all the bases and therefore could never truly measure up God’s standard of perfection, but we compare ourselves with others and come to the conclusion that we really aren’t that bad and if we just try hard and are sincere enough, God will accept us. We then continue to live with a large degree of insecurity in our relationship to God, constantly comparing ourselves to what others around us are or are not doing.The only option which means anything in God’s sight is for us to believe what we hear and to respond in faith & repentance to the gospel message. When we do this, then, and only then, Our faith is credited to us as righteousness, and we begin to obey God not out of a sense of duty, but rather out of a sense of grateful love, not out of any sense of needing to measure up, but rather out of a desire to grow in grace and to bring glory and honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.We cannot have it both ways. Either salvation is by grace or it is by works. If we insist on striving to measure up as a condition of God’s acceptance of us then we denying His grace, and, in a very real and practical sense, our need for it.At issue, here, is not whether or not we obey God, at issue is WHY we do so. Do we obey in order to somehow get – either in terms of blessings here and now or in eternity, or so that God might be glorified? Is our concern and our desire to LOOK good in God’s eyes or to believe Him and to trust HIS goodness enough to obey Him?Abraham modeled a life of faith for us. Against all hope he believed God. He persevered in that belief and then, after he obeyed, he gave God all the glory. He was convinced that God had the power to do what He had promised.Are we willing to follow his example, here this morning?A Truth to Remember: God’s promises are sure. What He promises He WILL do… and He wants us to take Him at His Word and trust Him.A Challenge to Consider: Are you truly resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ as you trust God to fulfill His promises, obeying Him out of love and gratitude? Or do you still feel compelled to measure up before you can truly rest in Him? |